Presidents Foreign and Domestic
George Washington 1789-1797 (No party affiliation)
Domestic: Judiciary Act of 1789, Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, Farewell Address, Two-term tradition, style precedents; Hamilton’s additions-assumed state debts at par, introduced tariff, established central bank
Foreign: Jay’s treaty, Pinckney’s Treaty, Neutrality Proclamation
John Adams 1797-1801 (Federalist)
Domestic: Alien and Sedition Acts, Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (Jefferson), Midnight Judges
Foreign: XYZ Affair, killed treaty with France, stayed out of war; unofficial naval war with France
Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809 (Democratic-Republican)
Revolution of 1800
Domestic: Got rid of only excise tax, cut national debt, no spoils system, Lewis and Clark, let Alien and Sedition Acts expire; continued to fund Revolutionary War debts at par; Samuel Chase impeachment attempt
Foreign: Embargo, impressment and Chesapeake incident, Louisiana Purchase; sent navy to defeat Barbary Pirates; Non-Intercourse Act passed by Congress days before retirement
James Madison 1809-1817 (Democratic-Republican)
Domestic: Allowed bank of U.S. to expire, allowed founding of Second Bank of the U.S.A. in 1816, American System proposed by Clay and vetoed by Madison, First protective tariff in 1816
Foreign: Macon’s Bill No. 2, War of 1812
James Monroe 1817-1825 (Democratic-Republican)
Domestic: Panic of 1819, American System vetoed, Missouri Compromise, Era of Good Feeling
Foreign: U.S. British Treaty of 1818, Florida Purchase Treaty, Monroe Doctrine
John Quincy Adams 1825-1829 (National Republican or Republican in 1824)
Domestic: Adams-Clay “corrupt bargain” accusation, tariff of 1828, Calhoun’s South Carolina Exposition
Andrew Jackson 1829-1837 (Democratic-Republican in 1828, Democrat thereafter)
Domestic: Spoils system, Eaton scandal, Nullification crisis, record number of vetoes, Trail of Tears, ignoring Supreme Court ruling, BUS squashed, no movement on Texas, opposed American System and vetoed Maysville Road bill, “pet banks,” specie circular; appeal to non-propertied masses; “Kitchen Cabinet”
Martin Van Buren 1837-1841 (Democrat)
Domestic: Panic of 1837, independent treasury
Foreign: failure to aid Canada rebellion
William Henry Harrison 1841 (Whig)
Domestic: “Old Tippecanoe”
John Tyler 1841-1845 (Whig; VP to Harrison)
Domestic: thrown out of party, vetoed new BUS bill,
Foreign: Maine maps, Texas annexation after Polk elected; Oregon fever rising
James Polk 1845-1849 (Democrat)
Domestic: lowered tariff, independent treasury
Foreign: Oregon settlement, Mexican War, Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
Zachary Taylor 1849-1850 (Whig)
Domestic: Gold rush, slave holding southerner, debate over Compromise of 1850--Taylor probably would not have signed; urges Californians to apply for statehood as a free state, irritated by threats of Texas to seize Santa Fe, dies of food poisoning
Millard Fillmore 1850-1853 (Whig)
Domestic: signs Compromise of 1850
Franklin Pierce 1853-1857 (Democrat)
Domestic: For Kansas-Nebraska bill
Foreign: withdrew recognition from Walker regime in Nicaragua, Perry to Japan; Ostend Manifesto, Gadsden Purchase
James Buchanan 1857-1861 (Democrat)
Domestic: Tariff of 1857, does nothing when states secede, believing he had no authority to force them to remain
Abraham Lincoln 1861-1865 (Republican and Union Party)
Domestic: Platform features something for everyone--in North, South Carolina secedes, Crittenden Compromise rejected, Fort Sumter, wartime liberties suspended, Emancipation Proclamation; passage of Morill Tariff, Pacific Railroad Act, Homestead Act, taking advantage of South being gone, fires McClellan, rejects settlement to war, Ten Percent Plan, unites with War Democrats in ‘64
Foreign: Trent affair, Alabama affair
Andrew Johnson 1865-1869 (Democrat)
Domestic: Johnson’s Reconstruction, Freedmen’s Bureau, Radical Reconstruction, impeached, resistance to punishing the South; Tenure of Office Act, veto of Civil Rights bill and others
Foreign: “Seward’s Folly”
Ulysses S. Grant 1869-1877 (Republican)
Domestic: Scandals: Fisk & Gould, Tweed, Credit Mobilier, Whiskey Ring, Panic of ‘73, Resumption Act of 1875, Liberal Republican revolt
Rutherford B. Hayes 1877-1881 (Republican)
Domestic: Compromise of 1877, Kearnyites; vetoes bill to end Chinese immigration
Foreign:
James Garfield 1881-1881 (Republican)
Domestic: Puts Blaine to Secretary of State, assassinated by frustrated office seeker
Chester Arthur 1881-1885 (Republican)
Domestic: Pendleton Act, Civil Service Commission
Grover Cleveland 1885-1889 (Democrat)
Domestic: Election: Mugwumps, took on GAR, scrutinized pension lookers, Interstate Commerce Act (ICC created)
Benjamin Harrison 1889-1893 (Republican)
Domestic: Billion Dollar Congress; gets rid of surplus, Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 passed with McKinley Tariff was compromise, Pinkerton strike
Grover Cleveland 1893-1897 (Democrat)
Domestic: borrow money from Morgan, Crushed Pullman strike, Wilson-Gorman Act; Depression of ‘93 worst of 19th century
Foreign: Venezuelan crisis, no to Hawaii annexation
William McKinley 1897-1901 (Republican)
Domestic: Gold Standard Act
Foreign: Spanish-American war against his better judgment, Insurrectos, Weyler, de Lôme letter, Maine, Dewey to Manila, Puerto Rico: Foraker Act, Cuba: Wood’s improvement, Teller and Platt Amendments, Philippines: Aguinaldo, Philippine Commission, Hawaii annexation, Open Door Note
Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1909 (Republican)
Domestic: Square Deal, Trustbusting, consumer protection, conservation, Good and Bad Trusts, Panic of 1907, Aldrich-Vreeland Act
Foreign: Hay-Puancefote Treaty, Hay-Banau-Varilla Treaty (canal), Roosevelt Corollary, marines to Cuba, peace in Russian-Japanese War, Root-Takahira agreement, “Speak softly and carry a big stick”--Battleships around the world
William Howard Taft 1909-1913 (Republican)
Domestic: trustbuster, Ballinger-Pinchot controversy, Payne-Aldrich Tariff, anti-trust against TR’s “good monopoly”--U.S. Steel
Foreign: “Dollar Diplomacy”, Caribbean intervention
Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921 (Democrat)
Domestic: Election: Bull Moosers vs. Dems and Reps--New Freedom vs. New Nationalism, “Triple Wall of Privilege,” Underwood Tariff, income tax, Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, Clayton Anti-Trust Act, Federal Farm Loan Act, La Follette Seamen’s Act, Workingman’s Comp Act, First to deliver State of the Union Address to Congress personally, Creel Committee, Espionage Act, Sedition Act, War Industries Board, National War Labor Board, Hoover’s volunteerism, Prohibition, draft, bonds, vs. Henry Cabot Lodge reservationists and irreconciliables for Treaty of Versailles, stroke and Edith, A. Mitchell Palmer and Red Scare
Foreign: vs. Panama Canal Tolls Act, Jones Act, Mexican Revolution vs. Huerta, WWI, Sussex Pledge, Lusitania, Fourteen Points, Treaty of Versailles, goes after Pancho Villa
Warren G. Harding 1921-1923 (Republican)
Domestic: return to “normalcy;” Emergency Quota Act; Immigration Act, Scandals: Ohio Gang; Teapot Dome
Foreign: Four Power Treaty; Five Power Naval Treaty; Nine Power Treaty; Fordney-McCumber Tariff
Calvin Coolidge 1923-1929 (Republican)
Domestic: Capper-Volstead Act; McNary-Haugen bill vetoed; uses progressive agencies to aid big business; encourages bull market; National Origins Act of 1924
Foreign: Kellogg-Briand Treaty; troops to Nicaragua, Dawes Plan
Herbert Hoover 1929-1933 (Republican)
Domestic: Election vs. Al Smith; Agricultural Marketing Act; Hawley-Smoot Tariff; Mellon as Secretary of Commerce; Reconstruction Finance Corporation; Norris-LaGuardia Anti-Injunction Act; Bonus Army
Foreign: Japan takes Manchuria; new Latin American policy
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933-1945 (Democrat)
Domestic: New Deal: Relief, recovery and reform--see book for legislation, Court packing, Japanese internment camps, Eleanor, First 100 Days, Recession of 1937, Brains Trust, GI Bill, ends discrimination in defense industries, no push for anti-lynching law, Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act
Foreign: Neutrality Acts; “Quarantine the Aggressors” speech; Destroyer Deal; USSR recognition; Good Neighbor Policy; Neutrality Acts; London Economic Conference; Spanish civil war embargo; Japan/China arms sales; free Philippines; Reciprocal Trade Agreements; cash and carry; Lend Lease; Atlantic Charter; Pearl Harbor; Teheran; Yalta; Japan embargo
Harry S Truman 1945-1953 (Democrat)
Domestic: Fair Deal proposal does not pass Congress; Dixiecrats and Progressives split Democrats in 1948; first H-bomb exploded; McCarthyism and blacklists; Taft-Hartley passes over veto; integrates armed forces; NSC-68 approved with Korea
Foreign: Drops A-bomb, Potsdam; IMF; World Bank; Berlin Airlift; Truman Doctrine; Containment; Korea; Marshall Plan; National Security Act; North Atlantic Pact (NATO); China revolution, Germany split; atomic monopoly; massive demobilization and remobilization; fires McArthur
Dwight Eisenhower 1953-1961 (Republican)
Domestic: Troops to Little Rock, curb Defense; “military-industrial complex;” curb TVA; Social Security expansion; labor-Hoffa; appointment of Earl Warren and Brown case; Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960; Creation of HEW; increase minimum wage; Federal Highway Act; Saint Lawrence Seaway creation; "New Look" Defense policy
Foreign: Armistice in Korea; SEATO; Geneva Conference on Vietnam, Hungarian Revolt; Aswan Dam; Suez Crisis; Eisenhower Doctrine; U-2 incident; ultimatum to leave Berlin--solved at Camp David with Krushchev; Nixon’s “Kitchen Debate;” John Foster Dulles roll back Communism/Us vs. Them foreign policy; “massive retaliation;” Cuban Revolution; Paris Conference fiasco; Sputnik; Iran and the Shah; troops in Lebanon; CIA Coup in Guatemala
John F. Kennedy 1961-1963 (Democrat)
Domestic: Inauguration rhetoric; Civil Rights initiatives, space program; failures with Congress; tax cut proposals; November 22, 1963; War on Poverty idea
Foreign: Alliance for Progress; Peace Corps, Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, Berlin Wall up “Ich bin ein Berliner,” Geneva Conference-Laos neutral, Hot Line Agreement, Test Ban Treaty, “flexible response;” Diem coup approval; Strategic Hamlet program; Rostow’s social and economic development
Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-1969 (Democrat)
Domestic: War on Poverty, Great Society, HUD, Office of Economic Opportunity, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965; Kerner Commission; Guns and butter decision; 1968 New Hampshire Primary; Operation Head Start; National Endowment for the Arts; Food Stamps; Beautification; CAP; Mass Transit; HUD; see handout for rest; passes Kennedy agenda
Foreign: Golf of Tonkin Resolution and Operation Rolling Thunder; massive escalation in Vietnam; running the war from Oval Office; Dominican Republic intervention; Pueblo seized; Tet offensive
Richard M. Nixon 1969-1974 (Republican)
Domestic: Watergate; Silent majority; anti-Media; Pentagon Papers and Plumbers; oil embargo; price and wage controls; EPA; stagflation; landslide in 1972, draft ends, voting age lowered;1973 oil embargo and energy crisis; Kent State and Jackson State; Impoundment; New Federalism; Southern Strategy
Foreign: CIA in Chile; War Powers Act, Vietnamization; Cambodia Bombing; “Peace with Honor,” Nixon Doctrine; visit to China; Détente; ABM treaty; SALT Treaty; aid to Israel during war
Gerald R. Ford 1974-1977 (Republican)
Domestic: Nixon pardon; Whip Inflation Now
Foreign: Helsinki Accords; loss in Vietnam, Mayaguez
Jimmy Carter 1977-1981 (Democrat)
Domestic: Energy crisis and plan in 1979, “malaise” speech, amnesty for Vietnam draft dodgers, inflation, interest rate and unemployment highs in 1980
Foreign: Iran Hostage Crisis; SALT II signed, not passed; Afghanistan invasion; boycott of 1980 Moscow Olympics; cutoff of grain sales to USSR; Camp David Accords; recognition of Sandinista government; Human Rights; Panama Canal Treaty
Ronald Reagan 1981-1989 (Republican)
Domestic: Restores grain sales to USSR; Tax cut; military spending increase; huge deficits; Space shuttle explodes; air traffic controllers fired; supply-side economics; Strategic Defense Initiative, assassination attempt; “The Great Communicator”
Foreign: Caribbean Basin Initiative; START treaty; Granada invasion; Iran-Contra, 241 Americans die in Lebanon; U.S.-Soviet summits; Pro-Britain in Falklands War
George Herbert Walker Bush 1989-1993 (Republican)
Domestic: Clarence Thomas nomination; “Read my lips” and tax increase
Foreign: Gulf War, troops to Somalia; Cold War ends; START II signed; troops to Panama to remove Noriega
Bill Clinton 1993-2001 (Democrat)
Domestic: "New Democrat;” Brady Bill; Loss of Democratic Congress; Don't ask don't tell on gays in military; Failed health care initiative; Welfare reform; Upholds Affirmative Action; NAFTA passed; Impeachment; Fiscal surpluses
Foreign: Troops withdrawn in Somalia; Dayton Agreements and troops to Bosnia; Air strikes against Iraqi weapons factories, terrorist sites in Afghanistan; Failure at Camp David on Middle East peace
George W. Bush 2001-2009 (Republican)
Domestic: Tax cuts; Return to deficits; Steel tariffs approved; Ashcroft/Gonzalez and civil liberties restrictions; No Child Left Behind; Social Security reform proposal; Katrina response; Financial crisis and bailout
Foreign: War on Taliban; Iraq War; ABM Treaty scrapped; Kyoto Treaty scrapped; International Criminal Court Treaty scrapped; Middle East “Road Map;”
Barack Obama 2009-2017 (Democrat)
Domestic: Stimulus plan; Bailout for automakers; Bailout for banks; Affordable Care Act; Finance reform law
Foreign: Escalation in Afghanistan; Assistance to Libyan and Syrian rebels; US combat troops leave Iraq; Coalition to defeat ISIS; Nuclear accord with Iran; Drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists
Donald J. Trump 2017-2021 (Republican)
Domestic: Abandonment of presidential norms; Media as “enemy of the people;”
Attempted restrictions on immigrants from Muslim nations; Russia scandal; Affordable Care Act repeal failure; Tax cut; Tariffs on steel and aluminum; Declared national emergency to fund border wall; Constitutional crisis over Congress’ right to investigate; Ukraine and first impeachment; passage of USMCA treaty, replacing NAFTA; COVID-19 and response; Appointment of three Supreme Court judges; Denial of defeat in 2020 election; Inciting takeover of US Capital/Second impeachment
Foreign: Paris Climate Accord withdrawal; Iran Nuclear Accord withdrawal; INF Treaty withdrawal; Withdrawal from World Health Organization; UN Human Rights Council Withdrawal; UNESCO Withdrawal; US embassy in Israel moved to Jerusalem; Meetings with Kim Jong-un; Peace between Israel, UAE and Bahrain
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Joseph R. Biden 2021-present (Democrat)
Domestic: American Rescue Plan (pandemic relief); COVID-19 vaccination program accelerated
Foreign: Return to Paris Climate Accord; Return to World Health Organization; Return to UN Human Rights Council; Withdrawal and defeat in Afghanistan